40 Years of The Mouse: A Guided Tour

It’s hard to believe that the computer mouse is celebrating its 40th birthday today. Honestly, it doesn’t look a day over 25.
On this date in 1968, inventor Douglas Engelbart demoed the first mouse at the Fall Joint Computer Conference (FJCC). That mouse was a big wooden box built by Bill English, who would continue to play an important role in the device’s evolution.
After the jump check out some of the highlights of the mouse’s long and colorful career.

1952: The First Trackball
It’s been said that all of the great technological innovations were first developed for space exploration or the military–and the mouse was no exception: An early precursor to the mouse, the trackball was created for the Royal Canadian Navy in 1952.
1968: The First Mouse
As demoed by Portland-born inventor Douglas Engelbart 40 years ago. Engelbart’s mouse was composed of two metal wheels housed in a wooden block. The inventor never received money for his patent.1972: The First Mouse Ball
Xerox inventor Bill English replaces Engelbart’s metal wheels with a ball that lets the mouse roll in far more directions than the simple X and Y axis model.1980: First Optical Mouse
Mouse Systems founder Steve Kirsch patents an early version of the optical mouse. Several other variations of the technology arise around the same time, but the technology won’t start to gain a real foothold until the following decade.1983: The Microsoft Mouse
Over the next two decades, Microsoft would impact nearly every aspect of the consumer electronics world, including a great run of mice for regular consumers and gamers alike (I’m actually using an MS mouse as I type this). This early incarnation shipped with a music tutorial, a population simulator, and Multi-Toll NotePad, all for the low price of $195.1983: Apple Lisa Mouse
This early and incredibly expensive desktop ($9,995, for the record) was one of the first personal computers to ship with a GUI and mouse. The single-button design would prove a mainstay in Apple mice for years to come.1991: First Wireless RF Mouse
Logitech’s Mouseman finally cuts the pesky cord with the world’s first commercially available wireless RF mouse.1995: The Scroll Wheel
Genius’s Eric Michelman pops a big spinning wheel between the EasyScroll mouse’s left and right buttons.2005: Footmouse
Products like the No Hands Mouse are marketed largely toward users with disabilities, eliminating the need to move hands between the keyboard and mouse.2006: The Gyroscopic Mouse
Bringing the fun of the Nintendo Wii to the world of the mouse, devices like the Logitech MX Air add a third dimension to traditional mice.
2006: The Mouse Phone
It’s a mouse! And a phone! These VOiP handset mice get points for effort, if not much else…